a troubled heart, part one
by veteran of honor
Summary: this is my first story but hopefully not my last. this series is about Damian, a man kidnapped as a child and pressed into service by Caesars legion. he finally after fifteen years sees his opportunity to escape.
1. Chapter 1

Men in chariots roared across the decaying street raining shotgun pellets and spears all around them. A small child runs for the safety of his house, but before he can reach the door a man in pre-war sports equipment cut him off. The child lets out a small and terrified shriek as the legionnaire reached down and picked him up.  
>The scream prompted a man, who was clearly not a warrior, to run out of the nearby house... he was impaled by a legionnaire's spear within five steps from the door. The child stares in horror as he looks at the body of his father writhing on the ground with a spear lodged in his chest, his father looks at him and feebly mouths the words "I love you" before another legionnaire walks over to the man and stomps his head in with a heavy boot. As the legionnaire walks off and the house is set ablaze, everything slowly begins fading behind the view of the child- when suddenly I hear a loud explosive voice booming through the room..."DAMIAN! Get your ass out of that bed and quit thrashing around like you're having a goddamn seizure!"<br>Damian scrambles out of the bed to his feet, why this legion instructor always singles me out he began to wonder, but he didn't have the time to continue this thought through.  
>Within seconds of getting out of his bunk the legion instructor struck him down onto the ground, Damian began to raise himself up but the instructor delivered a swift kick to Damian's ribs. Damian rolls over from the force of the instructors kick, the instructor was getting some sick pleasure from this, you could see it through the aviator shades he was wearing. He was going to beat Damian to death! All of a sudden there was a loud bang and the beating stopped, all the legion cadets gasped in shock. Damian rolled onto his stomach and then pushed himself up to his feet, blood dripping from his lip and a sharp pain with each time he inhaled.<br>Damian stared ahead at the limp body of the instructor, a gaping wound at the base of the mans skull, he looked up from the body to see a legion centurion. The centurion stood stoically with a  
>.45 colt in his hand. The pistol looked so out of place in the mans hand, yet he used it to efficiently end the life of this brutal instructor in a single shot.<br>The centurion holstered his pistol and spoke in a bellowing voice "let this serve as a lesson to all of you, this man was put in a position of authority, and what did he do, cadets? He abused that power."  
>The legion cadets all stood in awe at this chain reaction of brutality. The centurion looked around and then said "alright cadets, today we're doing some more outside training exercises." Damian falls in line with the rest of the cadets, but is then pulled to the side by the centurion. The centurion begins speaking to Damian in a soft, gentle voice, "I can see you did not have the best possible start to your day...so to make up for it, I want you to lead your fellow students."<br>Damia looked at his peers and then called out at the top of his lungs, "Fall in legionnaires, two columns!"  
>As the cadets marched out under Damians command, he felt a sense of pride and confidence surge through him.<br>Six Years Later...

Damian, now nine-teen years old, stands an even six feet tall, he has developed a light scar on his lip where he had been beaten by the legion instructor six years earlier, his eyes are a steely blue and his dark brown hair is cut in a strictly military manner.  
>Damian is standing outside the tent of the tent of the man commanding an empire, the great Caesar.<br>As the tent flap opens Damian snaps off a crisp salutation to who he was expecting to be Caesar, but instead to his surprise, it was a person Damian had grown up with, Vulpes Inculta.  
>Vulpes looks at Damian with a surprised look and as Damian drops his salute after realizing who it was, Vulpes begins laughing and tells Damian "ah old friend, suddenly I am the rank of Caesar himself?" Damian replies, "well of course not", in a sly yet subtle way. You simply caught me off guard, Vulpes.<br>Vulpes looks to Damian and all the emotion suddenly disappeared from Vulpes' face.  
>"Damian, I need to talk to you."<br>"What is it Vulpes?"  
>"there is an urgent matter the legion needs you to attend to."<br>"What is it?"  
>"there is an approaching group of travelers, we need you to go determine whether they are a threat or not."<br>Damian with a puzzled look on his face ask Vulpes, "travelers? What leads you to believe they could pose a threat?"  
>Vulpes replies, "I am not the one who is concerned, it's Caesar. Our scouts report there appear to be NCR troops escorting these people."<br>Damian still confused states, "Oh, I still don't see why Caesar is worried, it's not like the entire, NCR army is marching across the river."  
>Vulpes' voice suddenly raises in an explosive manner, "you don't dare question the thought process of the great emperor Caesar?!"<br>Damian, knowing that outburst certainly didn't draw him any favorable attention, decided it was time to set out for his scouting mission.  
>The briefing<p>

As Damian walked to his tent to get his equipment and meet with the men whom he commands.  
>Damian opened his locker and retrieved his legion armor, he leisurely put on the armor as it has turned into a routine after living most of his life in the legion. It had become simple muscle memory, but Damian has yet to allow the legion brainwash him. He still has memories of the day the legion stormed into his small village, killing all its inhabitants...save for Damian...<br>As Damian sat there staring into the glare of his legion officers helmet in a near trance, he heard the sound of footsteps approaching.  
>Damian shakes himself out of his trance to greet his troops and brief them on the mission.<br>Damian stands at the back of the tent and begins to spread the information to his men, "alright legionnaires, we are to inspect a large group of travelers, presumably NCR. You will act only on my command and follow my orders verbatim.""Do I make myself clear, legionnaires?"  
>"Yes sir, Damian, sir!"<br>As the other men piled out of Damian's tent, Damian returned to his locker to recover the rest of his supplies, he slips his helmet onto his head and ensures his machete is securely fastened to his hip.  
>The Encounter<br>Damian and his men silently trek across the dark Mojave, Damian decided on a night-time assault rather than an attack in broad day-light.  
>As Damian neared the NCR camp he saw four armed NCR guards watching over the camp. Damian saw an opportunity appear as two of the guards went in opposite directions making their rounds. Damian quickly crouched over to one of the guards and instructed his most trusted team member, Serrin, to follow suit.<br>Upon the men reaching there targets Damian and Serrin drew their machete's and plunged them deep into the necks of the guards. Damian then signaled for his two other legionnaires to dispatch the other two guards.  
>Damian and his men had managed to take out the visible guards without alerting anyone.<br>visible apparently being the key-word...  
>one of the two legionnaires decided not to wait for Damian to give the all clear and walked over to the nearby glow of a campfire. Damian and Serrin ran over to the campfire throwing caution to the wind in the hopes of preventing this recruit from fucking up the entire mission...but they were too late.<br>There were frightened screams from the campsite and then gun shots. The moment intensified at the realization that none of his men were equipped with a firearm.  
>When Damian and Serrin made it to the campfire, they saw the body of the recruit crumpled on the ground with a frightened man and woman standing over his body as the life drained out of him. The couple was armed with a single .38 caliber revolver. Damian began walking over to the couple, ensuring them he meant no harm, but before he made it to them they were separated by a hail of bullets.<br>There was a combination of armed NCR guards and armed civilians. Serrin was snagged in the arm with one of the many bullets flying by, Damian pulled him back before he was hit by any more and the duo turned around and attempted to run out of the camp, but encountered more armed guards. Serrin charged two guards and hacked them down disregarding the wound he already suffered as if it were nothing. Damian noticed a guard approaching from behind and quickly went after him, he drew his machete and with expert precision severed the arm of the guard and then kicked him to the ground. Realizing the guard no longer posed a threat, Damian reunited with Serrin and they continued there push through the camp. It was going well and they had been un-scathed until they came across a family at the end of the camp.  
>The father of the family pulled out an old service rifle and aimed it with a timid shake. Damian started to talk to them in an attempt to resolve this peacefully but before he got a word in Serrin stepped forward and lopped off the mans head.<br>The body fell to the ground limp and lifeless, the wife and children shrieked in terror at the beheading of their father and Serrin began to walk slowly torwards them...but, before he managed to come near the family Serrin let out a pained shriek.  
>Damian plunged his machete into Serrins, while Serrin lay there, blood oozing from his wound, Damian leaned in close to Serrin and whispered in a gruff tone "I thought I ordered for all my men to follow my orders VERBATIM, am I mistaken in that?"<br>Serrin grimaced and replied with a pained tone "you've gone soft Damian, I thought you were one of the legions finest...I guess I was wrong..."  
>Damian sheathed his blade and glancing at Serrin once more said "I never wanted to be a legionnaire, those bastards killed my family, they took all that mattered to me that day and forced me into slavery, this wasn't my plan for life, but now...now I have an opportunity to start over...and to live my life the way I want."<br>Damian winced at his next thought and almost couldn't believe how easy these next words came from his mouth, "first though, I must tie up a loose end..." Damian looked to the family and urged them to run, he could hear the guards nearing his position, so he said his final words to Serrin, "I wish I could say I'm sorry, but that would be a lie, so goodbye Serrin." With that Damian hacked at the neck of Serrin until Serrin stopped twitching.  
>Damian searched through Serrin's pack taking from it a bag of healing powder, three legion denarius and a bottle of dingy looking water- Suddenly the rip of a bullet flew over Damians head and he realized he had taken too long, he put the items in his pack and ran from the camp into the dark Mojave Desert, leaving the body of a former friend, a fellow warrior and the closest thing to a family he had, behind.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Damian continued his sprint through the Mojave until he spotted a demolished pre-war bus, he jumped in through one of the windows and lie there until he heard voices outside of the bus's shell.  
>"Where could that legion bastard have gone?"<br>"I don't know sir, his footsteps vanish at the road."  
>"Errgh! Look, I'll take half the men and head up the road and you take the other half and search down. We're bound to find his trail eventually."<p>

Damian holds back a sigh of relief in the fear of alerting the guards of his presence.  
>After waiting three hours in the bus and viewing the first rays of sunlight poking through the deteriorated shell of the bus, Damian still hears no sign of the guards.<br>He cautiously peeks from the window in search of any threats. After determining the coast is clear, Damian lowers himself back into the bus. He realizes if he continues wearing his legion garb the Mojave will make quick work of him.  
>With a new priority in mind Damian climbs out of the bus, putting his officers helmet in his pack and deciding to continue cutting across the Mojave instead of risking a run in with the patrolling guards on the road.<p>

After hours of marching through the dessert, Damian finally decides to take a drink of his precious water. He reaches into his pack and scrounges around until he feels his fingers make contact with the lukewarm plastic of his water bottle. He unscrews the cap and takes a small drink in an attempt to conserve his limited supply, the water goes down with a slight burn which he's not sure if it was from the radiation or the bottle baking in the desert sun.  
>Either way, he didn't care. He just needed to wet his throat and prevent himself from collapsing under the heat of the sun.<p>

Today seemed to be an unusually hot one, Damian was used to the desert heat, but now that he's thinking, when he was in the legion they had ample water from the colorado, and Caesar ensured they always had portable shelter to prevent his legionnaires from becoming heat casualties. However in his current situation, all he had was a dingy bottle of water, the occasional shade of a cactus, and dark red armor that drew every bit of the suns heat that it could.  
>After taking his last sip of water Damian removes his shoulder pads in the hopes of cooling himself off and lightening his load, but within minutes of running out of water, Damian collapses under the intense and tiring heat of the sun...<p>

...He awakens in a dirty and dusty room, he looks ahead and sees two people in business suits standing over a small table talking about something Damian is not quite sure of.  
>"Well what if we try auction him off at the gommorah?"<br>"Are you sure anyone would want to buy a legionnaire as a sex slave?"  
>"Don't think of it like that. This man has a strong jaw, a chiseled body and some nice scars. I'm sure we will have no problem unloading him, man or woman, he could appeal to either."<br>Damian with a bewildered look on his face exclaims.  
>"No way in hell you're auctioning me off as some prostitute!"<p>

The businessmen wheel around surprised to see their captured victim conscious!  
>Damian looking into the faces of his captors quickly makes some observations, the one on the right was in a grimy white suit and was probably the muscle of the operation, he had light brown hair and green eyes, with a slight scar on his right cheek.<br>The man on the left of the duo was an older man, he had grey hair with light streaks of blonde running through it, his skin was leathery and dark, but he was obviously of white descent. He had a pair of bifocals on and his white suit was in much better condition than that of his associate's.  
>The pair began to walk over to Damian.<p>

Damian started to thrash before realizing his hands and feet were bound together. The man in the grimy suit pulled out a straight razor and flipped it open-suddenly there was an explosion and men in NCR correctional facility uniforms started pouring through the smoky hole in the wall.  
>Damian recognized these men as a nuisance gang known as the powder gangers.<p>

Damian took advantage of the opportunity. He saw the man dropped his straight razor in the shock of the moment, so Damian threw himself on his side and eeked his way to the razor. He managed to get a light hold of the blade, then contorting it with his hands and finally cutting the rope, (along with knicking a few of his fingers).

Damian surveys the room he sees the older man on the ground not moving while the other man is taking pot-shots at the powder gangers with a 10 mm pistol, Damian crawls to the man on the ground and quickly searches him.

He finds a .375 revolver, a note and a handful of .375 rounds. With that he promptly crawled to the back of the shed, stood up just long enough to charge at the wall and bust through the rusted tin, he was surprised to see he had busted through the tin without cutting himself all to hell. But he didn't have time to celebrate this minor victory, he started to run looking back at the shed as it erupts into flames from multiple sticks of dynamite going off at once. The force of the explosion knocks Damian off his feet and he begins to topple down a nearby hillside.

Damian awakens moments later to find a lone powder ganger timidly standing over him with a single barreled shotgun aimed closely to Damians face.

Damian allowed the instinct he developed in the legion to take over, he reached forward grabbing the barrel of the shotgun and pushing it to the side, the powder ganger pulled the trigger firing into the ground beside Damian, but Damian couldn't care less as adrenaline had completely taken over at this point. He pulled the powder ganger towards him and delivered a swift punch to gangers face. He reeled back in pain giving Damian the opportunity to gain control of the shotgun, he reversed it before realizing it was out of ammo, the powder ganger started to get back on his feet but Damian threw the shotgun, hitting the ganger in the side of the head giving Damian just enough time to draw the .375 and put it blankly to the gangers face.

Damian hesitates as he tries to resist pulling the trigger, fighting to overcome the urges that had been what got him through his time in the legion. Damian holsters puts the revolver loosely into the sheath that once held his machete and runs off in the direction opposite of the flames.


	3. Chapter 3

Damian had only been walking for an hour but he already knew the powder gangers had no interest in chasing down a single person when they had a nice shed which presumably had at least some items of value (including Damian's helmet and machete) to loot through.

Then out of nowhere he hears a slightly feminine voice call out.  
>"Stop right there, legion scum!"<p>

Damian freezes in his tracks. Unsure of whether a powder ganger had caught up to him, an NCR  
>soldier has spotted him, or simply someone who doesn't like the legion saw an opportunity with this lone legion soldier.<p>

Damian slowly raises his hands as he feels a second person come up behind him, pulling his arms down and binding them with a piece of twine. As he was tying the twine the second figure spoke in a clearly masculine tone.

"Okay you legion dog, you stumbled across the wrong settlement."  
>"I'm no longer with the legion!" Damian replied in a rough outburst.<br>"Oh so now that you're caught you think that by just saying you're not in the legion you can get out of this?!"  
>"No! It's not like that!"<br>"If you aren't in the legion then why the hell would you wear their god forsaken armor?!"  
>"Because I just recently took my freedom."<p>

The man loosened his grip on Damian's hands, his instinct told him to run, but with the woman that probably has a gun aimed at him within earshot, he decides it would be in his best interest not to.

Damian hears the feminine voice approach from behind. Neither person is yet in Damians view.  
>"So, what do you think we should do with him, Chance?"<br>"I think we should kill this legion dog where he stands, Amy."  
>Amy pauses for a moment to think about this suggestion.<br>"I don't know about that Chance, if we kill him we can't get any info on him."  
>"But if we don't kill him, he's just going to be a drain on our resources!"<br>"Who said we have to feed the bastard?"  
>Chance smirks and then replies.<br>"Good point, he looks healthy enough."

Damian chimes in objecting to the conversation.

"Hey! Just let me go and you wont have to worry about anything, trust me, it will save you a lot of time and energy."

Chance gets in Damian's face and gruffly inquires.

"Is that supposed to be some kind of a threat?"  
>"No, I'm just saying that it would be much less of a hassle for you if you two would just untie me and leave me alone."<br>"No why would we do that legion?"  
>"So that way you and that woman would quit arguing in my ear!"<p>

Chance reels his arm back and smacks Damian across the right side of his face, knocking Damian to the ground.

Damian quickly draws his strength and raises himself to his feet, he now can see his captors and put faces to their names. Chance is a brawny man wearing an average merc grunt outfit with shortly cut orangeish hair and a single tooth missing from his angry grimmace.  
>Amy on the other hand is a thin woman with a hunting rifle gripped firmly in her hands, she allows for the strands of her sandy blonde hair to hang to her shoulders, while somehow managing to keep it out of her face, she's wearing a pair of black boots which were probably show boots from before the war and a pair of gecko leather jeans with a black and white flannel shirt, (obviously too big for her as it hangs loosely from her shoulders and the excess is tucked into her jeans)and is approximately a foot shorter than Chance who stands eye-level with Damian, after looking at the pair he turns to Chance and charges him, knocking him off his feet.<p>

He begins to kick Chance in the ribs, but before he manages to he feels the press of cold steel  
>against his temple...<p>

"Now both of you quit fighting!"

Damian reels his foot back and delivers a kick to chance's rib-cage despite the obvious danger of the action, he then feels a hard jolting hit to the back of his head, and everything goes black...

Damian's mind flashes back to the legion instructor that gave him the scar on his lip, and how he had just acted no better than the man who was shot for his actions that day, when the thought gets to Damian on the ground, he watches as the man draws back his foot and the moment it makes contact Damian violently awakens. His body wanted to shake as a person normally does after waking from such a dream, but he found himself to be still restricted.

Amy lazily looked over, the glow of a lantern illuminating her tanned face.  
>"Ha chance! It looks like you owe me twenty caps, sleeping beauty here woke up before morning."<br>"I did? What time is it?"  
>"Shut up legion boy!"<br>"I do have a name you know?"  
>"Yeah, I do know, but to be honest with you, I couldn't care less legion boy."<br>"Well, if you guys don't care about my name yet you are keeping me alive, what do you plan to do with me?"  
>"We haven't decided that yet, but if you cause us anymore problems we're just going to gut you and leave your body beside the road to rot."<br>"Message understood ma'am."  
>"Don't call me ma'am!"<br>"My apologies."  
>"Just shut up and wait for chance to get back."<p>

Damian began to survey the room he was in but as soon as he started to look around Chance burst through the door, scanning the room for Amy.

He rushed over to her and pushed her away from Damian, then grabbing Damian by the neck.

"How did you alert your fucking legion buddies?!"  
>"What are you talking about?!"<br>"Out there a fucking group of those legion bastards are about to ransack the town!"

Chance lifted Damian to his feet and drug him outside with Amy following close behind ready to provide covering fire.

Chance dropped Damian to the ground as the terrified shrieks of the townspeople grew louder, he saw powder gangers alongside the citizens of the town, all of them running in fear.

He looked to the road and gasped at the sheer number of legionnaires marching towards the town. At the head of the formation was an unmistakable figure, Damian could make out that wolf's head from any distance, Vulpes Inculta was leading this assault.

As the townspeople scramble for the 'safety' of their homes, the legion quickly spreads itself out across the town.

Four legionnaires rushed toward the trio, one was quickly dispatched by a shot from amy's and two more killed by a charge from Chance who was brandishing a pair of spiked knuckles.

The final legionnaire circled around Chance and Amy managing to release Damian from his binds and give him a single spear.

Chance and Amy wheel around to spot the legionnaire and Damian, the legionnaire takes out a ripper and stares them down, he begins to charge while revving the ripper, but after only three steps a spear tip pierces through his chest.

The legionnaire looks down at the tip before it is violently withdrawn from his chest and he topples to the ground.

Standing behind the legionnaire was Damian holding the spear.

"Now do you believe I'm not with the legion anymore!?" Damian remarks with droplets of blood spattered on his rage-filled face.

Chance and Amy stand there bewildered at this turn of events, until Damian barks out.

"We can't just stand here! We need to get moving before the legion destroys this whole town!"  
>"He's right Chance, lets get moving."<br>"Alright Amy."

The trio start to head for the road leading out of town with Damian at the head of their closely packed formation, they encounter one final group before they near the towns exit.

This group was formed in a circle, opening up once the trio came near to them revealing at the center of this group stood Vulpes Inculta himself.

"Damian, my dear friend. It's a surprise seeing you here considering you died with the rest of your squad."  
>"Vulpes, just step aside and let us pass, I don't want to have to hurt you."<br>"I'll let you pass in exchange for your woman."

Chance instinctively jumps in front of Amy and yells at Vulpes.

"If you want to get to her you'll have to go through me you dog-headed freak!"  
>"Damian, calm your attack dog."<br>"Chance, settle down, we're not going to give Amy away."  
>"Hm hm hm, I'll let you three pass, but this wont be the last you see of the legion, Damian. Eventually we'll catch up to you, and when we do, we'll kill you."<p>

Vulpes passed Damian one last glance before ordering his men to follow him to the towns courthouse.

Damian, Chance and Amy cautiously walk down the road, passing a sign with the words "welcome to Nipton" scrawled onto it.

Chance mutters under his breath.

"Goodbye Nipton..."


	4. Chapter 4

The trio cautiously walks down the road, ignoring the plume of smoke behind them that was once Nipton. They all take one final glance back at the smoldering ruins, Chance and Amy begin talking amongst themselves.

"Chance... do...do you think we could have saved them?"

Chance sternly looks at Amy replying coldly with.

"No. Those people were doomed from the moment the legion set their sights on that shit hole of a town."  
>"You can't mean that, Chance!"<br>"I do."  
>"Are you trying to say the legion is unstoppable?"<br>"No."  
>"Then what are you trying to say?"<br>"All I'm trying to say is-"

Damian interrupts their argument.

"Enough! Both of you shut up!"

Chance and Amy pause mid-conversation, Damian's face showing signs of intense annoyance. Amy speaks up.

"Look, I'm just trying to say-"

Damian again interrupts.

"I know what you are trying to say! I have been listening to you and Chance bitch for the last half of a mile!"  
>"Bitch? Remember who's in control here, you, you're our prisoner."<br>"Oh really? I'm your prisoner?"  
>"Yeah, you belong to us!"<br>"If I am your prisoner, where are my bindings? Where are the guns you should have trained on me to ensure I do not escape? Better yet, if I am your prisoner, then why the hell do you have me leading you all down the road?"  
>"Well clearly it's just, we just..."<br>"Exactly, the truth is, that you all have no clue what to do. You just made enemies with the legion, one of the most dangerous groups in this whole wasteland. You could just kill me, provided that I do not kill you first, but that would not even come close to solving the flurry of problems you have brought upon yourselves by the act of taking me prisoner! Now you are left with three choices, you could just suck it up and we can all move along as friendly acquaintances, we could part ways and all be hunted down by the legion separately,or you could just kill me right here and hope that all your problems will just go away!"

Chance steps forward pulling out a familiar weapon that Damian realized to be the .375 revolver he looted from the body of the older man in a business suit. He looked to his own hip and saw the revolver was not in the makeshift holster of his.

Chance steps forward and puts the barrel under Damian's chin. Damian defiantly stares into the blank face of Chance.

"Go ahead Chance, pull the trigger. End my life and and show your true nature! Do this and you will be no better than the legion itself."  
>"I am nothing like the legion!"<br>"Then prove it!"

Chance throws the gun to the ground cursing under his breath as he drags his palms down his face in an attempt to calm himself down. In the meantime Amy watches as Damian casually walks to his revolver, picking it up off the ground and sliding it back into his "holster".

Damian turns to the group watching as Amy helps to calm Chance.

"So have you two made your decision?"

Amy becoming the voice of the two says.

"We will just try and work things out as we go along, provided we don't have any more outburst like this one."

Damian flashes a light smile.

"Good. Now, let us continue on, we need to find something to eat. I for one am starving."

The group continue down the cracked and desolate road in silence until Amy spots a large herd of bighorners.

"Damian! Chance!"

Damian and Chance speak out in unison.

"What?"

Amy points to the herd grazing in a patch of brown weeds, Damian can see at least one that looks like it has enough meat on it to feed all three of them and maybe enough for them to pack up and store for later use.

Damian looks to the group and says.

"I will go first. You two follow about ten feet behind me. Amy I want you to shoot at the one that I hit with my spear. Chance, you go in front of the herd and make sure that our prey does not run past you."

With that they went to action, trusting in the plan of the man whom a mere couple of hours ago they were keeping as a prisoner.

Damian crouched over to the herd which was paying him no mind, most likely they didn't perceive him to be a threat. Then Damian pulls his arm back and flings the spear a few feet forward, striking the largest bighorner in between two of its ribs. The beast twists its head from shock, breaking the spear in half with one of its massive horns, it begins to charge forward but quickly turns back at the site and sound of Chance yelling and stomping like some wild animal himself. As the bighorner turned around retreating from Chance their was a single boom and the animal fell limply to the ground and started to convulse as the last signs of life left its body through a single hole above its left eye.

Damian looks back over his shoulder, seeing Amy still looking down the sights of her rifle, she begins to lower the rifle as she walks towards Damian. She pulls a combat knife from her boot and hands it to Damian.

"You're skinning this one Damian."  
>"Yes ma'am-err um, Amy."<br>"See, is it so hard to call me Amy?"  
>"I suppose not."<p>

Chance walks over to them and asks.

"What are we waiting for over here? There's the kill, so now lets take our lunch and move on."

Chance takes the knife from Damian and walks toward the bighorner corpse, he kneels down by its side and begins the process of cutting away the skin and collecting the edible meat. Damian walks over by his side and asks if he can see the knife when he's done. Chance looks over to Damian with an inquiring look and asks.

"Why do you want it?"  
>"I want to try and cut out the spearhead, maybe I can fashion it into a knife, or I could just use it to make another spear."<br>"Lucky for you Damian, I cut the spearhead out first thing, I didnt want the blood residue from that legionnaire you stabbed in the back to contaminate the meat any more than it already did. We are definitely going to have to cook this meat before we eat it."  
>"First things first though, we need to find a place to set up camp so we can start a fire and prepare the meat we do not eat at this moment for storage."<br>"Yeah, lets keep moving."

Chance finishes up skinning the bighorner and hands Damian the spearhead. As Damian puts the spearhead in his pocket, Chance begins putting the meat into a burlap sack he removed from one of his cargo pockets. He casually slings the sack over his shoulder and sets off down the road.

Damian examines the corpse of the bighorner one last time before he picks up a brisk pace to catch back up to Chance and Amy.


	5. Chapter 5

After lightly jogging to where Chance and Amy are kneeling while looking at a piece of discolored paper, Damian looks closely at the paper and notices markings and symbols scrawled on it.

"Is that a map?" Damian inquires.

Chance looks over his shoulders and says.

"Yeah, we have all the places we've been to marked on it. Also a list of the 'helpful' people we know that inhabit the places."  
>"Why did you put an odd tone on helpful?"<br>"Well, some of the people actually are a use to us, others are more of a tolerable burden."

Damian watches as Chance and Amy fold the map back up, following the various crease marks showing just how used this map is. Chance then turns and talks of the group's current plan of action.

"There is a gas station a few hundred feet past here overlooking a bridge. The last time we were there it was infested with radscorpions, and below the bridge were a few giant ants. Anyone have an idea on how we can take them out without getting ourselves poisoned, or worse, killed?"

Damian starts formulating a plan in his mind to have his thought process quickly interrupted by Amy's suggestion.

"I know! We could have one of us walk up and attack the ant colony, but he will have to be fast, because he's gonna run over to the radscorpions and we can watch as they both wipe each other out!"

Damian looks over at Amy rather surprised before saying.

"Uhh, yeah... That is actually quite an impressive plan."  
>"What? Didn't you think I am capable of thinking?"<br>"Well it is not that I thought you were dumb, I just thought you would be more of the person to go in a situation with guns blazing behind you."  
>"Hmm, as you can see I am capable of more than what you thought."<br>"Apparently."

The group stands together looking to see how many creatures they are going to be up against. Chance asks the inevitable question of who the bait is going to be.

"So guys, who do you think should go lead them away?"  
>"I think it should be Damian."<br>"What makes you two say me?"

The pair look Damian over and tell him.

"You have armor on unlike us, you probably are in good shape considering you're legion, and the most important thing, you my friend are new to the group."

Damian realizing there is no use in arguing starts to dreadfully walk to the ants.

Upon reaching the road declining to the bridge underpass, Damian watched as the ants scurried around in some form of organized mayhem. He looks around until he spots a decent sized rock, he picks it up and chucks it at the biggest of the ants he sees.

The ant turns its ugly pincers toward Damian and lets out a chatter alerting the other ants to the disturbance. All the ants look towards Damians direction and begin their charge.

Damian cuts to the gas station in a full on sprint, the ants following closely behind. Damian, in his haste, trips over a cactus protruding from the ground. Falling forward he attempts to catch himself only to have his arms fail him and allow him to fall flat on his face anyways.

He quickly rolls over onto his back and stares ahead at the swarm of ants rushing towards him. He can see one presumably faster than the others as it was at least ten feet ahead of the rest.

It manages to close in on Damian before he can pull himself off the ground. The ant crawls onto Damian and begins gnashing its pincers in his face. Damian pulls the spearhead from his pocket and slashes at the creatures face, but the spearhead is no match for the ants tough exo-skeleton. As the ant gnashes its pincers Damian can see the soft spot between them. He waits for it to open up again and the moment it does he jams the spearhead into the soft spot, shoving his whole hand into the creatures face.

He pulls his hand out leaving the spearhead behind in the creature. To his dismay though, the ants are now right on his heels, he can feel the vibration from the collective stomping on the ground by all the ants. All this noise apparently drew the attention of the radscorpions as well, as when he looks ahead they are already closing in on him.

He quickly turns to the gas station in the hopes that they will see each other and begin attacking one another, and to his excitement, it works!

He runs to the gas station as radscorpions run past him to aid their brethren. He ducks into the nearby garage and climbs into the bed of a busted up utility truck.

Damian looks on as the creatures attack one another simply for being in each others vicinity. After getting bored of watching the aimless violence he spots the other two members of his group slowly creeping there way past the battle. Damian decides while they make their way over to him he will check out the surrounding area.

He opens the toolbox in the back of the truck and reveals a pair of sun washed blue jeans, an old black leather jacket with a patch for "Las Vegas Fire Department" and some pre-war military patch that Damian didn't recognize. He takes off his legion armor and tosses it to the side in order to put on this new, less conspicuous, outfit.

He removes the jeans and begins looking them over. They appear to be his size(close enough at least) and he even sees a leather belt to go with them.

Next he picks up the jacket. As soon as he lifts it up though, something else catches his eye. Under the jacket was a fire axe. He picks it up with enthusiasm to find its handle is still quite sturdy. He now has an actual weapon he can use, besides his revolver.

He sets the axe to the side while he puts on his new jacket. After putting on said jacket he picks his axe back up and starts walking to the station itself.

He tries to look through the window on the outside but its boarded up and those boards are not coming off anytime soon.

So he instead decides to take the risk of walking into the station with no assistance and not the slightest clue of what awaits him on the other side.

He slowly and cautiously reaches to open the door, but the moment he makes contact with the handle the door springs open knocking him flat on his back as a person runs past him.

Damian, now lying on the ground doing a combination of cursing and groaning over having a heavy door bashed into his face, finally stands up to watch the figure disappear over the horizon, he can see the figure has leather armor on and quite possibly red hair.

He suddenly hears footsteps coming from behind him. He quickly wheels around and delivers a good and solid punch... To Chance...

Chance falls on his back and grabs the side of his face in an attempt to comfort himself to no avail, he found cursing and threats were a much better anesthetic. Damian slyly looked down at him and tells him.

"Hey, just be glad that I did not remember I found a new axe."

Chance looks up as he spits out another tooth along with a bit of blood from the back of his mouth.

"Yeah, lucky lucky me. Shit like this keeps up and I'll be toothless by the time I'm 30."  
>"If it will help to alleviate your pain, I apologize."<br>"Why do you talk like that?"  
>"Like what?"<br>"You always use these big fancy words, when you could just as easy get your message across using normal words."  
>"Well that was an odd switch of the subject."<br>"we aren't talking about subjects, I asked you a question. Now it would only be right for you to answer it."  
>"Hmm, I suppose it is about the only advantage of growing up in the legion. Caesar wants at least his officers to be educated, he always told us in his annual address of the legion, "A commander must be smarter, braver, and more prepared than the men he leads". So when I was moved up the ranks after showing my skill, I was sent to the officers training course. Where we were taught in subjects ranging from military tactics and the most efficient way to kill a man, to arts and poetry."<p>

Chance sets on the ground now both in a daze from the punch and the confusion of listening to the rant of his ally.

"You know what, I really regret asking you that. Remind me never to ask you anything again."

Amy reaches down to give Chance a hand back on to his feet. He grabs her hand and accidentally pulls her down to him.

She lets out a slight chuckle and they smile at each other for a brief second before they both get back on their feet.

Damian takes note of this and then gets back to the task at hand.

"Did you guys see the person running from the station?"

Amy still having a bit of joy in her voice says.

"Yeah, they laid you out with that door."  
>"I am quite aware of that, Amy."<br>"Just thought I would make sure you realize that."  
>"Trust me, I am painfully aware of that."<p>

Chance speaks up.

"We should make our way inside and start setting up so we can eat."  
>"yes, I agree." Says Damian.<p>

And with that the trio make their way inside.


End file.
